Currently, there are no methods for objectively scoring or rating a trustworthiness of a merchant. It has been observed that fraudulent activity for transactions is not distributed evenly among merchants. Thousands of dollars are wasted each year to resolve fraudulent transactions with merchants. Methods exist for rating a trustworthiness of a consumer to inform a merchant whether the merchant should proceed with a transaction, but such rating in the reverse direction does not exist.
Some methods allow customers to rate the merchant. However, these methods are subjective and based on each customer's unique experience with a particular merchant. For example, one bad review by a customer based on an isolated incident may skew the overall ratings for the merchant. In other words, the customer reviews may be biased or the review may be based on an unverified transaction between the customer and the merchant. Thus, ratings of a merchant based on customer reviews may not be accurate and objective.